2010 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 4:28 pm
These stats are done. What would people be interested in hearing about?
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Answered in 17 rooms out of 21, which is fine. No one powered it, which means the leadin was likely excessively difficult.NoWayItsTanay wrote:I don't remember if this was in an IS-set or HSNCT, but would it be possible to see the conversion stats for The Garden Party?
1/6/1 in 67 rooms, 4th-worst conversion of the tournament. Should have been a third bonus part.myamphigory wrote:I'm curious about the conversion of the God of Carnage tossup.
Last year's threadCarangoides ciliarius wrote:Last year you listed the (something like) 10 most-widely answered tossups and the 10 least-widely answered tossups of the tournament, and their conversion rates. I thought that was really interesting and spurred good discussion. Do you have those numbers?
Yes. Ideally we would like about 15 to 20 percent of correct buzzes to be for power; recent HSNCTs have done a good job of accomplishing that.Nick wrote:Does NAQT have an "ideal" power percentage?
What was this question on?bt_green_warbler wrote:---30% conversion---
[snip]
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First the least-powered. The following 36 tossups were not powered by anyone in the entire tournament:BRizzle wrote:Could you also give some of the most powered and least powered questions? I think it would be very interesting to see what subjects these questions were in.
jonah wrote:What was this question on?bt_green_warbler wrote:---30% conversion---
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2010 HSNCT round 11 wrote:This operation would be performed twice after encountering an operator when parsing a postfix expression. It would also be performed to obtain the address to which a subroutine should return and to obtain the parameters to that subroutine if they weren't passed through (*) registers. It puts the "F-O" in the acronym "LIFO." For 10 points--name this operation that removes the top element from a stack, the opposite of push.
Is this a typo or an actual tossup (and if so, what was it)?bt_green_warbler wrote:Least-converted:
-3
---10% conversion---
[snip]
Jeff could you please post the TU on this?bt_green_warbler wrote:First the least-powered. The following 36 tossups were not powered by anyone in the entire tournament:BRizzle wrote:Could you also give some of the most powered and least powered questions? I think it would be very interesting to see what subjects these questions were in.
Richard II of England
edit: grammar
It was an actual tossup; if I recall correctly it consisted mostly of describing how the electric field due to a dipole decreases at an inverse-cube rate with respect to distance. In my room, it was negged with +3.nobthehobbit wrote:Is this a typo or an actual tossup (and if so, what was it)?bt_green_warbler wrote:Least-converted:
-3
---10% conversion---
[snip]
2010 HSNCT round 2 wrote:The Wilton Diptych depicts this ruler kneeling before Mary and Jesus. The Lords Appellant tried to seize power from this ruler, who also saw his power threatened by a rebellion led by Jack Straw and (*) Wat Tyler. Ousted by Henry of Bolingbroke, this king was advised by John of Gaunt and put down the Peasants' Revolt. For 10 points--name this English Plantagenet king who succeeded Edward III.
2010 HSNCT round 4 wrote:A Cotes' spiral results from a central force proportional to this power of the distance. At large distances, tidal forces are proportional to this power of the distance, as are the B fields around a magnetic dipole and the E fields around an electric dipole, because dipoles produce an (*) inverse square potential. For 10 points--give this power that is less than the radial dependence in Coulomb's law.
answer: _-3_ or _r to the -3_ or _inverse cube_ or _inverse cubic_ or _1 over distance cubed_ (accept similar answers; do not prompt on "3" or "distance cubed")
I think it was mixed impure; there was a clue about Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, if I recall correctly.Isaacbh wrote:What was the tossup on "Saturday night" on? Was it a common link based on pop-culture or what?
2010 HSNCT round 10 wrote:It is when Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby were "uptown" in a 1974 film, and names the larger part of the story of Arthur, a bike factory worker, in Alan Sillitoe's debut novel. Elton John says this time is "all right for fighting," and it was when (*) Archibald Cox was fired as Watergate special prosecutor in a "massacre." For 10 points--identify this time also naming a 1977 "fever" contracted at a disco by John Travolta.
1/9/2 in 67 rooms (ie, not at all good).Javatron wrote: What were the conversion stats for Dorothy Sayers?
2010 HSNCT round 8 wrote:Alfred V. Frankenstein edited a volume of folk songs collected by this man called ~Songs of America~, while his posthumously published memoirs were called ~Ever the Winds of Chance~. He won a Grammy for his part in Aaron Copland's (*) ~Lincoln Portrait~, and a Pulitzer for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. For 10 points--name this author whose poems include "Prayers of Steel," "Fog," and "Chicago."
Note that the latter was mixed (with pop culture), not literature.2010 HSNCT round 9 wrote:His output in Hollywood included uncredited work on ~Gunga Din~ and ~Mildred Pierce~, and five films by Howard Hawks, including ~Land of the Pharoahs~. The first film based on one of his own books was 1933's ~The Story of (*) Temple Drake~. The screenplays for ~The Big Sleep~ and ~To Have and Have Not~ were penned by--for 10 points--what Nobel Laureate more famous for works such as ~The Sound and the Fury~?
2010 HSNCT round 8 wrote:Since late 2008 in this country automakers GAZ and KAMAZ have announced large layoffs and the collapse in energy prices has hurt natural gas producers Novatek and Lukoil. In the last 20 years the population has dropped by five million, and the need to stabilize the population has led to recent fights with (*) Georgia and Ukraine. Gazprom is a company in--for 10 points--what country with large oil reserves in Siberia?
2010 HSNCT round 12 wrote:The deadliest marine organism to humans is in this phylum; parts of these organisms are capable of reaching accelerations of 40,000 gs. Like sponges, they lack distinct circulatory systems and have two cell layers; unlike sponges and ctenophores, they have namesake (*) cells that can inject venoms into their prey. For 10 points--name this phylum once called Coelenterata that contains the deadly box jellyfish.
Yes, this mentioned "Skunk Hour" in the power zone:nadph wrote:it namedropped a fairly famous poem while still in power (it might've been "Skunk Hour"). What were its conversion stats?
No, "Skunk Hour" is not "fairly famous." In 66 rooms: 2/9/1.2010 HSNCT round 12 wrote:While serving as a conscientious objector during World War II, this man wrote his first book, ~Land of Unlikeness~. He wrote of having lost a "summer millionaire" who "seemed to leap from an L. L. Bean catalogue" in a poem written for Elizabeth Bishop, "Skunk Hour," while he wrote of the "old South (*) Boston Aquarium" in another work. For 10 points--name this poet of ~Lord Weary's Castle~ who wrote "For the Union Dead."
I'm not a big fan of that statocyst clue, as statocysts are not unique to cnidarians and are actually quite widespread among invertebrates.BRizzle wrote:From Round 3 of the 2010 NSC
2. One order in this phylum, Pennatulacea, bioluminesces upon contact, and its members employ a balancing organ called a statocyst. Contact with some members of this phylum can lead to Irukandji syndrome, with symptoms including tachycardia and vomiting. The parasitic Myxozoams may belong to Protozoa or to this phylum, whose organisms secrete a (*) basement membrane that is separated from the epithelium by mesoglea. Members of this phylum possess venom-containing cells called nematocysts, used to catch prey or as a defense mechanism. For 10 points, name this phylum of invertebrates like hydras, coral, sea anemones, and jellyfish.
ANSWER: Cnidarians
Seems like the mesoglea clue may be a little bit garbled too (I'm pretty sure the mesoglea is between two layers of epithelia--endoderm and ectoderm--rather than between one of those layers and the basement membrane).The Toad to Wigan Pier wrote:I'm not a big fan of that statocyst clue, as statocysts are not unique to cnidarians and are actually quite widespread among invertebrates.BRizzle wrote:From Round 3 of the 2010 NSC
2. One order in this phylum, Pennatulacea, bioluminesces upon contact, and its members employ a balancing organ called a statocyst. Contact with some members of this phylum can lead to Irukandji syndrome, with symptoms including tachycardia and vomiting. The parasitic Myxozoams may belong to Protozoa or to this phylum, whose organisms secrete a (*) basement membrane that is separated from the epithelium by mesoglea. Members of this phylum possess venom-containing cells called nematocysts, used to catch prey or as a defense mechanism. For 10 points, name this phylum of invertebrates like hydras, coral, sea anemones, and jellyfish.
ANSWER: Cnidarians
I mean, "Skunk Hour" is "fairly famous" in the sense that it's probably his second- or third-most famous poem. Should it be within power in a college tournament? No. Should it be within power in a high school tournament? No, but only in the sense that I don't think Lowell is an appropriate tossup answer line for a high school tournament.bt_green_warbler wrote:Yes, this mentioned "Skunk Hour" in the power zone:nadph wrote:it namedropped a fairly famous poem while still in power (it might've been "Skunk Hour"). What were its conversion stats?
No, "Skunk Hour" is not "fairly famous." In 66 rooms: 2/9/1.2010 HSNCT round 12 wrote:While serving as a conscientious objector during World War II, this man wrote his first book, ~Land of Unlikeness~. He wrote of having lost a "summer millionaire" who "seemed to leap from an L. L. Bean catalogue" in a poem written for Elizabeth Bishop, "Skunk Hour," while he wrote of the "old South (*) Boston Aquarium" in another work. For 10 points--name this poet of ~Lord Weary's Castle~ who wrote "For the Union Dead."
I mean, I think you and Nikhil are getting at the same thing--to write an HSNCT tossup on Robert Lowell, you have to get down to the most famous clues for him pretty quickly, which is kind of a suboptimal situation, not least for conversion.The Granny wrote:I was just going to say, I don't think Robert Lowell qualifies as "particularly famous" at the high school level, let alone any of his works.
2010 HSNCT round 19 wrote:In one work, this author described a writer named Larry who assists the wheelchair-bound exile Ramirez, who lives in Greenwich Village. In another novel by this man, works such as ~Blood and Sand~ shape the life of Toto Casals. His best-known work opens with (*) Molina describing a movie about Irena to Valentin, his cellmate. For 10 points--name this author of ~Betrayed by Rita Hayworth~ and ~The Kiss of the Spider Woman~.
Here's the list of tossups that were negged more than 20 times. The leader was the Denmark Vesey tossup, with 46 negs.RyuAqua wrote:Another question: out of curiosity, is there a way to bring up the tossups that were most frequently negged?
3/26/15 in 35 rooms. I think that confirms my belief that the Race to the Sea is harder than the chemical weapons usage in the second battle.2010 HSNCT round 17 wrote:Polygon Wood was located just east of this town, where Herbert Plumer began one battle by exploding mines under Messines Ridge. The first battle at this site concluded the Race to the Sea with a defensive action by the British (*) Expeditionary Force, while the second, in 1915, saw the first use of German chemical weapons. For 10 points--name this Belgian town, the site of three large battles during World War I.